Alec Responds:'I've Been Driven to the Edge'

4/20/2007 5:55 PM PDT BY TMZ STAFF

Alec Baldwin swung back at wife Kim Basinger, slamming "certain people" who he says, "will go to any lengths to embarass [sic] me and to disrupt my relationship with my daughter."

In a statement on his website alecbaldwin.com, Baldwin apologizes for "losing my temper" but is "equally sorry that a court order was violated," and maintains that despite his now-public tirade he has friends and "respect from people I work with," and what he claims to be "a normal relationship" with daughter Ireland. Here's the statement in full:Thank you to everyone who has posted messages of suppport and understanding. Naturally, it is not best for a parent to lose their temper with their child. Everyone who knows me privately knows that I have endured a great deal over the last several years in my custody litigation. Everyone who knows me privately knows that certain people will go to any lengths to embarass me and to disrupt my relationship with my daughter.

In such public cases, your opponents attempt to take a picture of you on your worst day and insist that this is who you are as a person. Outside the doors of divorce court, I have friends, I have respect from people I work with and I have a normal relationship with my daughter. All of that is threatened whenever one enters a court room.

Although I have been told by numerous people not to worry too much, as all parents lose their patience with their kids, I am most saddened that this was released to the media because of what it does to a child. I'm sorry, as everyone who knows me is aware, for losing my temper with my child. I have been driven to the edge by parental alienation for many years now. You have to go through this to understand. (Although I hope you never do.) I am sorry for what happened. But I am equally sorry that a court order was violated, which had deliberately been put under seal in this case.

Once my book is published, I'm sure more people will understand the incredible strains created by parental alienation.

In the meantime, I'm sorry to anyone who's taken offense from this episode.